Standard Lemma guide

holonym

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈhɒl.əˌnɪm/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈhəʊl.əˌnɪm/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈhɑl.əˌnɪm/
  • General-American: /ˈhoʊl.əˌnɪm/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A term that denotes the whole of which another term's referent is a part.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, philosophy, sciences, semantics

Examples

  • Holonyms: semantic network, wordnet, thesaurus
  • The word "face" is a holonym of the word "eye", which is a holonym of the word "retina".

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: meronym

2

noun

Meaning 2

a word that names the whole of which a given word is a part

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • `hat' is a holonym for `brim' and `crown'

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: whole name

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: word

History

Etymology

From hol- + -onym.

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: holoniem — term that denotes a whole
  • Bulgarian: холоним (holonim) — term that denotes a whole
  • Chinese Mandarin: 整體詞 /整体词 (zhěngtǐcí) — term that denotes a whole
  • Danish: holonym — term that denotes a whole
  • Dutch: holoniem — term that denotes a whole
  • Finnish: holonyymi — term that denotes a whole
  • Finnish: kokonaiskäsite — term that denotes a whole
  • French: holonyme — term that denotes a whole
  • German: Holonym — term that denotes a whole
  • German: Gesamtbegriff — term that denotes a whole
  • German: Verbandsbegriff — term that denotes a whole
  • Hungarian: holonima — term that denotes a whole
  • Polish: holonim — term that denotes a whole
  • Spanish: holónimo — term that denotes a whole
  • Swedish: holonym — term that denotes a whole
  • Vietnamese: từ tổng — term that denotes a whole
  • Vietnamese: tổng danh — term that denotes a whole